This is one of the SADDEST stories ever told in Hollywood. His name is Sylvestar Stallone. One of the BIGGEST and Most famous American Movie superstars. Back in the day,Stallone was a struggling actor in every definition. At some point,he got so broke that he stole his wife’s jewelry and sold it. Things got so bad that he even ended up homeless. Yes,he slept at the New York bus station for 3 days. Unable to pay rent or afford food. His lowest point came when he tried to sell his dog at the liquor store to any stranger. He didn’t have money to feed the dog anymore. He sold it at $25 only. He says he walked away crying.

Two weeks later,he saw a boxing match between Mohammed Ali and Chuck Wepner and that match gave him the inspiration to write the script for the famous movie,ROCKY. He wrote the script for 20 hours! He tried to sell it and got an offer for $125,000 for the script. But he had just ONE REQUEST. He wanted to STAR in the movie. He wanted to be the MAIN ACTOR. Rocky himself. But the studio said NO. They wanted a REAL STAR.

They said he “Looked funny and talked funny”. He left with his script. Afew weeks later,the studio offered him $250,000 for the script. He refused. They even offered $350,000. He still refused. They wanted his movie. But NOT him. He said NO. He had to be IN THAT MOVIE.

After a while,the studio agreed,gave him $35,000 for the script and let him star in it! The rest is history! The movie won Best Picture,Best Directing and Best Film Editing at the prestigious Oscar Awards. He was even nominated for BEST ACTOR! The Movie ROCKY was even inducted into the American National Film Registry as one of the greatest movies ever!

And do You know the first thing he bought with the $35,000? THE DOG HE SOLD. Yes,Stallone LOVED HIS DOG SO MUCH that he stood at the liquor store for 3 days waiting for the man he sold his dog to. And on the 3rd day,he saw the man coming with the dog. Stallone explained why he sold the dog and begged for the dog back. The man refused. Stallone offered him $100. The man refused. He offered him $500. And the guy refused. Yes,he refused even $1000. And,Believe it or Not, Stallone had to pay $15,000 for the same,same dog he sold at $25 only! And he finally got his dog back!

And today,the same Stallone who slept in the streets and sold his dog JUST BECAUSE he couldn’t even feed it anymore,is one of the GREATEST Movie Stars who ever walked the Earth!

Being broke is BAD. Really BAD. Have You ever had a dream? A wonderful dream? But You are too broke to implement it? Too tiny to do it? Too small to accomplish it? Damn! I’ve been there too many times!

Life is tough. Opportunities will pass you by,just because you are a
NOBODY. People will want your products but NOT YOU. Its a tough
world. If you aint already famous,or rich or “connected”,You will find it rough.

Doors will be shut on You. People will steal your glory and crash your hopes.You will push and push. And yet NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.

And then your hopes will be crashed.You will be broke. Damn broke. You will do odd jobs for survival. You will be unable to feed yourself. And Yes,you may end up sleeping in the streets.

It happens. Yes,it does.

BUT NEVER LET THEM CRUSH THAT DREAM. Whatever happens to
You,Keep Dreaming. Even when they crush your hopes, Keep Dreaming. Even when they turn you away,Keep Dreaming. Even when they shut you down,Keep Dreaming.

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF EXCEPT YOURSELF! People will judge You by HOW you look. And by WHAT You have.
But please, Fight on! Fight for Your place in history. Fight for your glory. NEVER EVER GIVE UP!

Even if it means selling all your clothes and sleeping with the dogs,ITS OKAY! But AS LONG AS YOU ARE STILL ALIVE,Your STORY IS NOT OVER. TRUST ME.

The imbalanced structure of Twitter, where some users have many followers and the large majority barely has several dozen followers, means that messages from the more influential have much more impact. Less popular users can compensate for this by increasing their activity and their tweets, but the outcome is costly and inefficient. This was confirmed by an analysis of the social network performed by researchers from the Technical University of Madrid.

Visualisation of the spreading of messages on Twitter (retweets network in green) on the followers network (grey). The nodes represent users and their size is proportional to the number of followers that they have. Red indicates users who have written original tweets and yellow indicates users who have retweeted them.

What can Twitter users do to increase their influence? To answer this question, a team of researchers at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) has analysed thousands of conversations, applied a computational model and devised a measure that relates the effort spent to the influence gained by tweeters.

The results, published in the journal ‘Social Networks’, confirm that the actual structure of Twitter is the key to the influence. It is a heterogeneous network, or rather, one where there is a large number of users with very few followers (61 on median, according to O’Reilly), and a few -very few- with an enormous number of followers (up to 40-50 million).

With this type of distribution, network position or ‘topocracy’ comes before meritocracy: “Having a larger number of followers is much more important than the user’s ‘effort’ or activity in sending lots of messages,” Rosa M. Benito, head of the research team, tells SINC.

“However, if the underlying network were homogeneous (something which it is not), users would have approximately the same number of connections and their position on the network would not be important; their influence would depend directly on their activity,” establishes the researcher.

According to the study, on heterogeneous networks like Twitter the way in which users send messages does not matter, because there is always going to be a highly influential minority. Tweets that more popular people or institutions send are spread more and have greater impact, even though they send very few, which is also quite usual.

“The data shows that the emergence of a group of users who write fewer tweets but that are largely retweeted is due to the social network being heterogeneous,” Rosa M. Benito points out.

The researcher is not exactly encouraging for the majority of tweeters who wish to be more influential: “Ordinary users can gain the same number of retweets as popular users by increasing their activity abruptly. Then it is possible to increase their influence through activity, but it is costly and inefficient”.

The rapid increase in mobile technology such as smart phones and watches, tablets and Google Glass, has resulted in the need for more research to ensure those devices work well.

But, says Wichita State assistant professor Jibo He, there are no good tools to properly test mobile devices. So He, along with WSU professor Barb Chaparro, invented a solution using the latest technology of Google Glass.

It’s called uSee Glass and is a software application that allows remote observers to conduct usability testing. This week, He and Chaparro filed for a patent on the software.

These are the ways it works:

Participant point of view: The user can wear Google Glass, which includes the uSee Glass software and a video camera. The uSee Glass will capture scenes from the participant’s point of view and stream it for remote observation.

Researcher point of view: The researcher can have the uSee Glass application installed in his or her Google Glass and capture scenes from the researcher’s point of view. The researcher can also have uSee Glass installed in an Android tablet or a smart watch and use the application to communicate with remote observers. Wearing Google Glass or a smart watch allows the researcher to receive a tactile notification when a new message from remote observers arrives. They can also tap on the touchpad of Google Glass to mark important events.

Remote observation: A researcher can observe the scene remotely from anywhere using a computer with an Internet browser. The remote observer can communicate with the researcher via an Android device.

“Currently there’s no good way to do mobile research,” He said. “You can use a web cam, but that’s not from the point of view of the user. USee Glass for Google Glass and smart watches provides a new tool for mobile research. ”

Widespread possibilities

Part of what stands out about this tool is that it allows the researcher the ability to text and communicate with the user while he/she is looking at and interacting with a device. It makes for more efficient research, Chaparro says.

uSee Glass will also help further research that He is conducting on Google Glass. He is one of only a few people in Wichita to have early access to Google Glass and is researching the safety of people using the device while they drive.

While He and Chaparro are focusing their research on Google Glass and other mobile devices, there are potential ramifications for all kinds of industries, such as science, health care, aviation and agriculture.

Earth is known as the Blue Planet because of its oceans, which cover more than 70 percent of the planet’s surface and are home to the world’s greatest diversity of life. While water is essential for life on the planet, the answers to two key questions have eluded us: where did Earth’s water come from and when?

In this illustration of the early solar system, the dashed white line represents the snow line — the transition from the hotter inner solar system, where water ice is not stable (brown) to the outer Solar system, where water ice is stable (blue). Two possible ways that the inner solar system received water are: water molecules sticking to dust grains inside the “snow line” (as shown in the inset) and carbonaceous chondrite material flung into the inner solar system by the effect of gravity from protoJupiter. With either scenario, water must accrete to the inner planets within the first ca. 10 million years of solar system formation.

While some hypothesize that water came late to Earth, well after the planet had formed, findings from a new study led by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) significantly move back the clock for the first evidence of water on Earth and in the inner solar system.

“The answer to one of the basic questions is that our oceans were always here. We didn’t get them from a late process, as was previously thought,” said Adam Sarafian, the lead author of the paper published Oct. 31, 2014, in the journal Science and a MIT/WHOI Joint Program student in the Geology and Geophysics Department.

One school of thought was that planets originally formed dry, due to the high-energy, high-impact process of planet formation, and that the water came later from sources such as comets or “wet” asteroids, which are largely composed of ices and gases.

“With giant asteroids and meteors colliding, there’s a lot of destruction,” said Horst Marschall, a geologist at WHOI and coauthor of the paper. “Some people have argued that any water molecules that were present as the planets were forming would have evaporated or been blown off into space, and that surface water as it exists on our planet today, must have come much, much later — hundreds of millions of years later.”

The study’s authors turned to another potential source of Earth’s water — carbonaceous chondrites. The most primitive known meteorites, carbonaceous chondrites, were formed in the same swirl of dust, grit, ice and gasses that gave rise to the sun some 4.6 billion years ago, well before the planets were formed.

“These primitive meteorites resemble the bulk solar system composition,” said WHOI geologist and coauthor Sune Nielsen. “They have quite a lot of water in them, and have been thought of before as candidates for the origin of Earth’s water.”

In order to determine the source of water in planetary bodies, scientists measure the ratio between the two stable isotopes of hydrogen: deuterium and hydrogen. Different regions of the solar system are characterized by highly variable ratios of these isotopes. The study’s authors knew the ratio for carbonaceous chondrites and reasoned that if they could compare that to an object that was known to crystallize while Earth was actively accreting then they could gauge when water appeared on Earth.

To test this hypothesis, the research team, which also includes Francis McCubbin from the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico and Brian Monteleone of WHOI, utilized meteorite samples provided by NASA from the asteroid 4-Vesta. The asteroid 4-Vesta, which formed in the same region of the solar system as Earth, has a surface of basaltic rock — frozen lava. These basaltic meteorites from 4-Vesta are known as eucrites and carry a unique signature of one of the oldest hydrogen reservoirs in the solar system. Their age — approximately 14 million years after the solar system formed — makes them ideal for determining the source of water in the inner solar system at a time when Earth was in its main building phase. The researchers analyzed five different samples at the Northeast National Ion Microprobe Facility — a state-of-the-art national facility housed at WHOI that utilizes secondary ion mass spectrometers. This is the first time hydrogen isotopes have been measured in eucrite meteorites.

The measurements show that 4-Vesta contains the same hydrogen isotopic composition as carbonaceous chondrites, which is also that of Earth. That, combined with nitrogen isotope data, points to carbonaceous chondrites as the most likely common source of water.

“The study shows that Earth’s water most likely accreted at the same time as the rock. The planet formed as a wet planet with water on the surface,” Marschall said.

While the findings don’t preclude a late addition of water on Earth, it shows that it wasn’t necessary since the right amount and composition of water was present at a very early stage.

“An implication of that is that life on our planet could have started to begin very early,” added Nielsen. “Knowing that water came early to the inner solar system also means that the other inner planets could have been wet early and evolved life before they became the harsh environments they are today.”

New Year brings with it new beginnings and optimism. A lot of people like to usher in the New Year with resolutions that they eventually end up breaking. Many of these New Year resolutions revolve around personal finance since financial well being is an important aspect of life. A lot of people usually fail to maintain such New Year financial resolutions because they over complicate their resolutions making them hard to maintain.

Before making your resolutions for 2014, the most important thing you should do is to review your current financial status. Here is a quick check for making a simple and achievable New Year resolution for anyone irrespective of earnings and expenditure. Apart from improving the overall financial health, this can help you take smarter financial decisions in the long term.

Review your investment portfolio: Reviewing one’s investment portfolio by the end of the year is one of the best steps for taking a good investment related resolution. While reviewing the overall investment portfolio, one must ask some basic questions as to how risky the investment portfolio is and explore the adjustments where required. If you are single and have started working only recently, you can afford a riskier portfolio compared to married people with families. One thing that is common while evaluating your personal investment portfolio for the year is to always maintain a balance between long term goals and any emergency requirements for a rainy day.

Pay off Debt: Paying off old debt is one of the best ways to usher in the New Year. Budgeting and paying off old debt might not be as difficult as it may appear and only require a principled approach. One can set up accounts to automatically deduct monthly expenses. Get out of the old debt trap to increase the chances of improving your financial health in the coming year.

The best approach is to start by paying off the debt with higher interest rates like credit card des and personal loans. If you have some surplus cash, you may also consider paying off loans as pre payment instead of paying EMIs. The best way to resolve pension debts is to keep a lookout for better interest options in the market to reduce the total term of the home loan thereby saving on the interest cost. You can use the additional pay outs you received this year like bonus, incentives, LTA etc for paying off unwanted debts.

Invest in an Emergency Fund: In this day and age of increasing inflation, sudden job loss or a sudden illness of any family members can damage your finances. Therefore, it is imperative to consider investing in an emergency fund. Most financial experts are of the view that such emergency funds which also known as contingency fund, must hold finances that can sustain the dependent members of the family for a minimum period of six months. If you have not given due though to have an active emergency fund, make plans to start it this New Year. Make regular investments in your emergency fund which can gradually help you a build a corpus that is liquid with the ability to earn handsome returns.

Protect your family’s Financial Future: Protecting your family’s financial future is an essential step that needs to be a part of each financial resolution. A lot of people explore life insurance but totally ignore medical insurance for dependants and immediate family members. If you are one of those who have neglected medical insurance of your dependants, plan for a good package by this New Year.

For people seeking life insurance as an investment, one needs to understand that life insurance helps your dependants in case you are not around. Considering insurance purely as an investment vehicle is a bad financial decision that must be changed.

Improve Credit Scores: Another great New Year resolution is to improve your overall credit score (CIBIL). Many people are stuck with bad credit score due to their own financial mismanagement. Take a call before this New Year to cut out on unwanted credit cards and loans so that you do not end up spoiling your credit score in the coming year. If you are planning to avail some loans in the coming months, make sure that you keep a minimum gap of six months between the two loan applications. Pay your loans and credit cards on time avoiding late payments.

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn to not judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall.

When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted.

The second son said no – it was covered with green buds and full of promise.

The third son disagreed, he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.

The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but one season in the tree’s life.

He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are – and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life – can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall.

Don’t judge a life by one difficult season. Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.

Some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.” He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty.

He yelled at her, “Don’t you know that when you give someone a present, there’s supposed to be something inside it?”

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said,”Oh, Daddy, it is not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy.”

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.
It is told that the man kept that gold box by his bed for years and whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as humans have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, friends, family and God. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.